Algorithms in social networks

What Are Algorithms in Social Networks?

At their core, algorithms are models that use your user data to calculate which content appears in your feed, meaning the homepage of the respective social network. They are influenced, for example, by likes, comments, or the amount of time you spend viewing certain content.

What Is the Purpose of an Algorithm?

The algorithm is designed to suggest content that matches your interests as closely as possible. The goal is for you to interact with the content by liking, sharing, commenting, and, of course, watching it. The algorithm’s highest priority is to keep you on the platform for as long as possible, because this is how the platform operator can make the most money from you.

Opportunities and Risks

At first, the idea that algorithms show you content you are likely to be interested in sounds positive. By watching, liking, and commenting on content, you can signal that you would like to see more similar content. By blocking accounts and muting content that you do not like, you can filter out things that are not interesting to you. This allows you to influence your experience on social networks to a certain extent and have some control over what appears in your feed.

On the other hand, you still need to be careful. Algorithms favor content that is polarizing and emotionally engaging, which often includes political content or disinformation. If you watch and like one of these videos, you may start seeing more and more similar content until your feed consists almost entirely of it.

Political content in particular can eventually lead you into what is known as a filter bubble, also called a “bubble,” where you are mainly shown opinions and statements that match your own views. In this way, you lose exposure to different opinions and may find yourself in an “echo chamber,” where everyone says things that you already believe anyway. This one-sided reinforcement of your own views can, in some cases, particularly in a political context, contribute to radicalization.

Breaking out of such an “echo chamber” can be extremely difficult. You can try the following:

• Regularly delete your search history.

• Delete cookies and reject them whenever possible.

• Use your browser’s incognito/private mode.

• Disable personalization on platforms.

• Use alternative search engines instead of Google.

• Clear your cache.

• Block tracking.

• Occasionally like posts that represent different opinions.

• Deliberately follow people and groups who have different opinions.